The Past Will Haunt You
by Karin Starsen
Summary: This is a sequal to 'to reunite in zanarkand'. This is about Brother, and someone he discovers in Luca.He takes her in, and wonders... Why is she so familiar?
1. Treasure in Luca

**Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy x-2, or any other Final Fantasy games. **

**The Past Will Haunt You**

**((This is a sequal to 'To Reunite In Zanarkand'. You must read that one first.))**

**Celcius**

Brother stepped onto the deck and breathed in the fresh, morning air. Finding Cid was much harder than he thought it would be. He searched all of the obvious places, the desert, Jhose temple… but he wasn't there. For the first time ever, he was almost worried about his father. It must have been all of the emotional build up from the previous week… One thought came to his head then…

_Rikku… why you sister? Why you?_

A frown suddenly appeared on his face. _How could the sky still be so beautiful on a day like today? _he thought. Yet again, everything felt so wrong. He headed back inside to continue the search for his father.

**Luca**

Quinn's eyes never left the price. Somehow, through the throng of people, the small girl could keep up with the soldier, and keep her eyes on his wallet. She stayed out of range, hoping that nobody would notice her, and followed her target through the crowds towards the sphere dome…

Quinn was short for Monique. Although she only stood 4ft 9inches, she was a surprising 13 years old. She was dressed all in brown, short brown breaches, and a brown leather vest. She hated brown though, and always wanted to wear something colorful… that's why she was currently targeting a soldier's back pocket. She was tan, and a bit dirty from sleeping in abandoned boxes at the dock. The only things that shone was her striking, blonde hair and her swirling, al bhed eye. That's right, only ONE EYE was the swirling, green of an AL Bhed. The other, was a deep blue like the ocean. She was so thin, she could fit in between virtually, any crack between buildings. It was a great advantage for a thief.

The Al Bhed inched closer to the soldier, now only a few feet away. Nobody glanced at her, all waiting in line to get into the concert… some well known band, or other. Quinn didn't particularly care at that moment. Finally close enough, she ducked down and slowly reached into his pocket in anticipation. She felt the warm leather of a wallet, and slipped her fingers around it. She started to raise it out, she the guard twitched. He looked down quickly, but it was too late. The experienced thief had already bolted with the thick-with-money-wallet in her hand. She couldn't help but smile while she ran for her life…

**Celcuis**

Brother, Buddy and Shinra all contemplated where to go next while in there positions of the Celcuis.

"I think we should ask again in Bikanel (spelling?) Desert…" Shinra said.

"No! We already did that twice!" replied Brother, in his usual loud, husky voice.

"I agree with Shinra," said Buddy in his deep tone.

"No, and that is final. Who is the captain here?"

Buddy and Shinra sighed before simultaneously saying, "You are."

"And I say we go to Luca!"

"Luca?" asked Buddy.

"…hmmm," Shinra typed something into his computer database before turning around to face them. "I believe that Brother has a point. It would be the best place to ask around. Who knows, maybe he's there."

"Right…"

"Off to Luca!" Brother cries, and the Celcuis goes into turbo drive strait for the city.

**Luca**

Brother stepped off the ship, and immediately walked to where the crowd was. He wondered what was going on to bring that many people into Luca. Maybe it would even attract a cranky, old, Al Bhed man to it. Hey, you never know!

As he got closer to the sphere dome entrance, the crowd thickened. He looked around at all the people, and running into more. He wasn't used to crowds, but he didn't hate them. Brother was walking along when suddenly he stumbled over a little girl. She fell to her face, and looked as if she had scraped her hand. He bent down to help her up, but he couldn't help staring at her gold hair that was braided into a zillion braids, then put back with a piece of leather.

"Lnit!" she exclaimed softly. _"crud!"_

"Sorry!" Brother said, not slipping into Al Bhed as he had taught himself not to.

Surprisingly, she stood and started running again. He heard a guard yelling, and turned to see a guard running through the crowd, his eyes fixed on the golden bobbing head. As the guard game running by him, Brother stuck his foot out. The guard flew threw the air, landing on his face. Brother eased into the crowd and the guard never knew what hit him. Brother went in search of the small girl.

_I should be looking for father, but I can't seem to even think of just leaving her, _he thought as he left the crowd. There she was again, she was walking purposefully into a children's clothing store. Brother followed.

**Clothing Store**

Quinn looked around at all of the choices. She saw some brown clothes and quickly dismissed that section in her mind. She started towards the light greens and yellows when a woman came over.

"May I help you?" the woman said with a bright smiling face.

Quinn whirled around, but forgot to shade her eyes. The woman's face immediately became sour.

"We don't help mixed breeds."

She started ushering the 14 year old out the door when a man stepped in the way. He only wore black overalls and no shirt. His arms and chest, and probably legs, were covered in blue flame tattoos. The woman only hesitated.

"Excuse me sir, I'll help you in a moment. I must get this mixee out of here."

"Excuse me, but that is my daughter," Brother lied. The woman looked up, saw his pure Al Bhed eyes, then let Quinn's shoulders go.

"Sorry sir, but next time, make sure that she is with someone."

"We'll be shopping now…"

"Yes sir." The woman walked off, and Quinn turned around slowly.

"Um… thank you," she said.

Brother knelt down next to her. "So you speak English too? You're a mixee? Eh, well that is no problem… Is that wallet yours?"

Quinn tightened her grip around the wallet. "Mine!" she said quickly.

"Alright, alright! It's yours now. Let's hurry up and get you something, then get out of here."

Quinn looked at him suspiciously.

"I'm captain, and I'm not letting you go out alone. You're coming with me!"


	2. Cid

_Authors note_: Excuse my absence, and my immense amount of errors in the first chapter. I believe I wrote it in a hurry... Anyway, I think I'm going to try and start up writing again. But I need support! By the way, Quinn is 13, not 14 like I said in the end for some reason... sorry about that, hahaha.

**Luca**

The sun shone down to make a surprisingly happy day out of the stress that Brother was feeling at the moment. Problems were showing up without reason or solutions; and of course the captain had to deal with them. But that's what being the leader was all about. He looked down at the girl next to him... he had no clue who she was, or anything about her.

She didn't waste any of the money in the wallet she... acquired. She looked like a whole new girl; wearing a short yellow skirt, and a light green tank top. She also just _had _to get the bright red beaded necklace at the counter... Brother rolled his eyes, but said nothing as they walked quickly through the crowds. He made sure to keep an eye on the girl so that she wouldn't get away. It was strange that he was sticking to her so, but for some reason it didn't feel right leaving her in the streets somewhere. And there was still something about her that he needed to figure out... he would of loved to get back to the Celcius to figure it out, but there was still the issue of finding Cid.

_I wonder what the old man will say about this... Does not matter, the girl is my responsibility... as captain!_

He nodded to himself as a sort of... approval of his thoughts. Quinn looked up at him strangely, but dismissed it. She decided that this strange al bhed man was alright... he hadn't turned her in, and he helped her buy the things at the register... so he must be alright. He had told her that she was to follow him; but since when was she to take orders?

The thing was... she didn't have a place to stay that night. Her last 'home' had been raided by a boy gang, so she was once again without a proper place to sleep for the night. Maybe if she stuck with him long enough, she'd get a nice place to stay out of it. Apparently, he was looking for a man named 'Cid'... she didn't know why, but he seemed a bit angry and worried. In fact... he always seemed angry... kinda looked like a generally upset person. There were bags under his eyes... perhaps from lack of sleep lately?

It didn't matter to Quinn, whoever he was... he better have a nice place for her to stay the night. And food; food is nice as well.

_Speaking of food... _she thought; they had stopped in front of the cafe, apparently something inside was interesting to the al bhed. The only thing that Quinn could think of was the food inside... Someone stepped out side, and a breeze carrying the smell of wonderfully made cookies wafted through the doorway. She slowly started walking towards the entrance; luckily, so was the man next to her.

"Ra'c eh rana." Brother said to the girl. _He's in here._

"Ruf tu oui ghuf?" she asked him. _How do you know?_

He only spoke one word. "Vuut." _Food._

**Luca Cafe**

Cid was indeed inside of the Cafe, little to Brother's surprise. The girl seemed pretty surprised at how easily someone could be tracked, but she tried to conceal it from Brother. He chuckled a little at her innocence before walking over to meet his father. Cid looked up over at him, deep bags underlying his eyes.

"Oh. It's you," he said in english.

"_Oac, _it's me father. Where have you been?! We've been looking for you for two days!"

"Why?" Cid asked nonchalantly, and uncaringly.

"Because!" Brother took a deep breath, then stopped. "uhm... because? I don't know because! Just because! Why have you not been at the Desert? Or at the temple, huh?"

Cid just shrugged and took a sip of his coffee. It was unlike him to pick a fight with Brother... but it was too early in the morning, and they were in a public place... the events of losing his daughter dragged him down a lot as well.

"Who's the girl?" he asked, dodging a glance over at Quinn.

"Huha uv ouin picehacc!_" _Brother exclaimed. _None of your business!_

"Oh?"

Brother and Cid stared at eachother hard for a while... but surprisingly, Cid just started laughing. A few of the people in the cafe looked over at them, but didn't really pay attention. Cid finished his coffee, then stood fishing some Gil out of his pocket.

"Come on, let's get to this airship of yours. I needa get to Bikanel! Some fishy business has been happening there!"

(_Short chapter, I know, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to think of what I need to happen here... hmmmm)_


	3. machina

The airship was... well, amazing to Quinn. She had never seen anything like it before. Well, she'd seen the airloading dock and such... and seen ships, but never been inside of one. Being half al bhed, the smell and wonder of machina caused her to stare in awe at the machina around her. She felt right at home sitting in the center of the deck, just looking around. What intrigued her most was Shinra, the seemingly brilliant-beyond-belief boy... That was something believable. He steadily sat there, typing away about who knows what. It was like he never stopped... except occasionally he would reach up and scratch his head. It amused the young girl. He wasn't much older than her... how could he be so brilliant?

Also looking out the front through the windows was amazing. She almost plastered herself to the front glass when they took off. The older man they had picked up, Cid; he took her out on top of the ship. That was brilliant... just absolutely stunning and lovely. Quinn took a mental video of sorts... trying to make sure she'd remember it forever. The clouds falling down besides her; the rush of being pulled up into the air so fast. Cid laughed at the girls excitement... but she didn't care.

This was the luckiest moment of her life. She still didn't have any definate thoughts on whether or not she wanted to stay with them or not... but at the moment, things were definitely looking in their favor.

Cid's eyes were a little watery as he watched the girl. Her name was Quinn, they found out. He didn't know why brother didn't find that out sooner... stupid kid... She was 13, and she looked... so much like Rikku. He tried not thinking of his daughter, but looking at that girl almost set him over the edge.

"Hey Quinn!" he called to the girl in his rather boisterous voice. She looked over him a little glaringly, upset he had ruined the moment.

Cid just pointed a finger out in the direction they were going. "Look."

Large dark clouds were there, lightning could be seen lighting it up every once in a while. Quinn shivered... for some reason, she had a problem with lightning... Just an innate fear she was born with.

"We, uh... should probably head inside. Whaddya say?" he asked her. He felt a little sheepish talking to the strange girl.

Quinn just nodded and headed over to the door, it opening when her feet touched the sensors. Cid followed at a safe distance as they headed down inside to the deck.

"Cid! Ramb eh dra Ahkeha nuus!" Brother's voice came over the loud speaker. _Cid! Help in the engine room!_

"Yeah, yeah..." Cid said, grunting when he stood from his bed. He had been napping, and Quinn had been hiding from the storm.

"Want to come help Quinn? The loudness of the room might dim down the sound of the thunder. No windows; can't see the lightning either."

"_Oac!"_ Yes!

Quinn jumped from the bed, excited about it. A chance to work with machina... and no storm.

The engine room was... huge. Quinn's eyes widened in excitement, and her fear about the storm disappeared completely. She forgot that it was even going on.

"What do I do?" she asked Cid.

He looked over his shoulder as he walked towards some very loud machina.

"Just watch what I do for now, kid!" he shouted back so she could hear him.

Quinn nodded. She walked over to where he was... Cid pulled out a wrench, and started working on the bolts. He tightened them.

"See, the thing is this thing is so loud because it moves a lot. Durin' storms, it has to work a lot harder. It shakes and vibrates more... so it needs to be tightened down, or else the bolts will shake loose. There are no big problems today... but if you want to help with this, then there is a spare wrench in the toolbox over there in the corner."

Quinn smiled brightly, becoming comfortable around Cid now, and walked over to the box to get a wrench. It took a few tries to get the right size, but when she had it she started working hard and quickly.

Cid had to admit, he was rather impressed.

He chuckled a little. "If you work at this, you could be quite the technical genius."

Quinn turned red, and tried to show her happiness at his compliment. He was sort of a... father figure to her. One that she'd never had before. She wanted to impress him, make him proud of her. So, she started working harder. Soon, the engine room was finished.

Cid wiped the sweat off of his brow. "hmm... I think that Brother should keep you on this ship..." Cid said, looking down at her.

Quinn looked up and nodded.

"Unless there is somewhere else you'd rather go..."

She shook her head quickly. "Are you crazy? Where else could I go? I want to get better at this!"

Cid chuckled... the laughed. He settled down. "Ha ha! That'ta girl! I'll help you learn, then you can really help out on this ship. Who knows... maybe you could get into the faction!"

Quinn's face was alight with happiness. "Really?!" she asked eagerly. Cid had to laugh again. Surprisingly, she hurried over, giving Cid a big hug. She was only about as tall as his stomach. Cid was surprised... but happy that the girl was comfortable around him.

She reminded him so much of Rikku... the he couldn't help but think of her as a daughter. He didn't want to replace his daughter; yet he still felt the need to protect Quinn.

"Well. I'll make sure you've always gotta place to stay.

"Cid! We landing soon!"Brother yelled over the speaker. "We are through the storm! Come and see!"

the speaker went off... Cid and Quinn looked at each other. They couldn't help but laugh at Brother's stuttered English, and al bhed accent.

"Common, girl! Let's go see the desert!"


	4. Zanarkand

**ZANARKAND**

Rikku never really understood what love was, but as she dropped the last sphere into the water she knew that everything she'd ever loved was gone, and she would be dead before the chance to return to them ever came. Every tear that fell from her cheek hit the water, causing an explosion of ripples to spread outwards, just like every friend she'd ever known... and every ripple was washed away by the waves. _How can I live like this? What is there here for me? What... do I do now?_

An Al Bhed in a strange world; would she ever find her kind again? Home is a far off dream, a land that no longer exists for her. What was she to become? Could she even try?

The dark thoughts spun through her head, but were abruptly brought to an end by a nudge of Travis. Rikku jumped a little, the usual hyperactive energy flowing through her trying to find an escape in the unnaturally depressed girl.

"Hey Rikku, it'll be okay."

A pout found her lips, hard and fast. "That's easy for you to say! I don't see you losing your whole life recently!" Yuna, Gippal, Paine, Brother... they all flashed through her eyes... more tears, and now her throat closed up as well. She fell to her knees, the hard metal banging up her knees. The pain just added to her worthlessness.

"This is your world, not mine!" she told him bitterly from the ground. Desperately, her body screamed for something familiar to cling to... unfortunately Tidus had already headed out. This last message was a personal one for Rikku. Travis only stuck around to help her find her way back. Zanarkand could be a horribly confusing place.

A gentle arm rested around Rikku's shoulders. She hadn't even noticed Travis sit on the dock next to her, too many emotions were welled up inside.

"It's the same world," he spoke just as gently as he acted. "Just a different time. You'll see..."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Well... you might just have to," he told her. The news hit like solid ice. Shivers ran through her spine; would she really have to learn to live in a place such as Zanarkand? Sure, the Al Bhed liked technology, but after spending so much time with Yuna it seemed almost... wrong. Would Sin come back again? Was that even possible? If Sin did return, could... it return her home? Rikku felt a sudden nausea pass her at that thought; how could she even _think_ that after fighting Sin for so long? How will she survive?

There were just too many questions, and not enough answers.

"E tuh'd ghuf..." _I don't know..._

"I know, I know..." Of course, Travis had no idea what she said, but he just felt like it was the right thing to say. He didn't know how she felt, but it was heart wrenching watching the spirited girl so down. It wasn't even like she was alive anymore. "Come on Rikku... let's go back to Tidus' place."

Rikku shook her head. "I don't think that I could stand if I wanted to," she muttered.

"Rikku, you've gotta get back up. I hate seeing you like this."

"At least you can see me."

Travis sighed loudly. "You made me do this..."

Suddenly and swiftly Rikku was up in the air. "Whoa!" Surprised, she looked around. Her tear-filled eyes made the surroundings blurry, but she could feel Travis's arms around her shoulders and under her knees. The floating sensation was not her finally waking from a dream, but the fact that she was no longer on the ground. He was carrying her.

"If you can't get up, then I'm just going to pick you up. Quite literally. We have to go see if Tidus is okay, and I don't think I've seen you eat anything for about three days. I'm not letting you die."

_I wish you would..._ the thought came seamlessly. For once, it didn't scare Rikku at all. She wondered if what she was now could even be considered living.

**The House**

The smell of something delicious filtered through the air. The mix of noodles, bread, and cheese had Rikku's nostrils begging for more. It had been a while since she'd eaten anything at all, and even though the it smelled delicious, her stomach didn't growl. In fact, it protested in pain against even the thought of eating anything. Her eyes scanned up to see Tidus sitting across the room. Their eyes met with the same strange intensity of a great loss. His shoulders hunched, and his hair was ruffled and unkempt. Although he'd been living a while without Yuna now, all of his hope returned when Rikku showed up. All that hope stored up, just to be crushed again when he found out that it was a one-shot deal. Then again, he was a little more used to this than Rikku was, and his eyes had room enough for a sparkle of concern for her.

The blonde really couldn't handle that, and her eyes cast back to the floor. They traveled endlessly across the pattern of the rug, over and over, spiral and spiral... and then they just stopped, too tired to look anymore. Her brain too tired to comprehend anymore. Even sitting on the couch seemed like too much of a hassle.

"Dinner!" Travis's smiling voice could be heard from the doorway. Rikku could smell the steaming hot bowls of food he had with him. His boots clunked over to Tidus, who took the bowl willingly, his stomach not able to withstand the teasing smell of home cooked food. Then, expectantly, he traveled over to her. The soft brown of his blitzball boots entered into her vision, and the overwhelming smell of macaroni and cheese filled her nostrils. He flopped down next to her, nudging her slightly.

"Here's some food Rikku."

"I can't eat."

"Sure you can."

"No, I really can't. My stomach won't."

"Please... you've got to eat something. Just one bite?" He held a fork full of gooey goodness in front of her mouth, just under her nose. The olfactory senses won, and she regretfully took a bite. Her stomach growled in anger. That was enough for the night.

"There."

"Thank you."

Travis knew that she wasn't going to eat any more that night, which bothered him, but he knew it would take time. Her sadness overwhelmed him. He had seen Tidus in action, and knew that he could take care of himself, but this poor girl... at least she was staying with his buddy Tidus. He wouldn't let anything happen to her.

_I can't imagine anything close to what they must be going through..._ He looked at the woman's tortured physique and sighed. _And I almost questioned why I was helping her... but I can't help it. The poor girl looks like she won't make it through the night. _

After a while the food was finished and the sun began to go down. Unfortunately, Travis had a game in the morning and needed to get back to his own place to sleep. After picking up the kitchen he headed towards the door.

"Hey guys, take care of yourselves, okay?" He nodded to Tidus, looking over to Rikku who hadn't moved since they got back. _Take care of her, _he thought before exiting. Before he could regret it he moved off into the night. It was going to be a long time before anything was normal again.


End file.
